Abandoning Kyoto was irresponsible. It’s also humiliating, Canada is better than this.

Fact: Over sixty percent of Canadian voters, who cast ballots in the last federal election, did not vote for the Conservative Party, the political party that just humiliated most Canadians.

Q: How could the Harper Government back out of a treaty that Canada ratified years ago? Where was the debate? Why wasn’t this momentous decision brought to a vote?

Some time ago, I laughed in agreement when Brian Topp wrote, "Unfortunately, the angry old uncles are now in charge of the government of Canada…" If I could edit that article for The Globe and Mail, today, I’d add a couple of words, "Unfortunately, the angry, arrogant, greedy, irresponsible, old uncles are now in charge of the government of Canada."

Q: What can we do?
A: Make sure that your voice is heard.

Frustrated Canadians, might want to consider:

1. electing more women
2. encouraging the Green Party and the Liberal Party to merge
3. electing Elizabeth May to lead the ‘New Green Party’.

Q: Are you pissed with politics?

I am too, but don’t make the mistake of thinking, "Politician’s just don’t get it." The reality is that conservative politicians are getting exactly what they want.

Here’s some current economic data, courtesy of Robert Reich‘s recent online articles, that illustrates precisely how well conservatives are serving the richest 1%.

Robert Reich was the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor and is a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. His latest book is "Supercapitalism."

"New data from the Commerce Department shows employee pay is now down to the smallest share of the economy since the government began collecting wage and salary data in 1929.

Meanwhile, corporate profits now constitute the largest share of the economy since 1929."

"… tax rates on the super rich are now lower than they’ve been in three decades"

"This tsunami of big money into politics is the real public nuisance. It’s making it almost impossible for the voices of average Americans to be heard because most of us don’t have the dough to break through. By granting First Amendment rights to money and corporations, the First Amendment rights of the rest of us are being trampled on."

Related posts:

>> All They Cared About Was…

>> Collective Good

LYBD? LiveYourBestDreams.com is one of my core websites. When I decided LYBD should have a logo. My thought process went like this:

• a square with the letters LYBD inside, two letters up and two down, stacked (blue sky with sunshine coming through the letters) or the same but with a sunrise background and black letters
• a little later, perhaps the letter d, for dreams, either uppercase or lowercase with balloons, not unlike the movie UP, or the same but with a spring green leaf

The concept was to suggest the beginning of a great new dream.

My daughter and son-in-law very quickly developed

I love it; it’s simple, clean and perfect. Thanks Jen and thank you Mike.

Comment: It’s possible you arrived at this blog post because you were redirected from one of my old network marketing websites. I apologize if the information you might have been searching for is no longer available.

I attempted to create wealth for myself, my family and friends with a couple of direct sales businesses. I persevered for over a decade. I enrolled thousands of hopeful people; unfortunately, only a couple of those people earned a significant income. My goal was to help, but the attrition stats were undeniable. I started to feel like I was picking pockets rather than doing good. The big question is, did I fail thousands of distributors, or, did network marketing’s business-model for distributors let all of us down?

I recently decided to sever my ties to the network marketing profession. Thank you to all the wonderful people, I’ve met along the way. I wish you health, happiness and enormous success in your future endeavours.

Network Marketing – Think Hard Before Joining

Network marketing has been around for over fifty years, so its track record is very well established. Millions and millions of people, worldwide, have enrolled; unfortunately, the vast majority ended up losing their money. Significantly, and contrary to myth, only a minuscule fraction of one percent of network marketing professionals have actually earned serious incomes.

Here’s a typical example: ‘Big Money’ stories enticed people, by the hundreds of thousands, to discover an exotic, super-fruit, juice company. Titillated by stories that the company’s top income earners were paid millions of dollars every year, financially desperate people felt they had new hope; some actually dreamed about earning as much as $100,000 per month. What happened to their dreams?

Not too long ago, that company’s, government mandated, income disclosure statement revealed that:

• fewer than one percent qualified for commissions
• of the one percent who qualified for commissions, only ten percent earned more than $100 a week

You might be thinking, “One out of every one thousand people earning $100, or more, per week doesn’t sound too bad.” Unfortunately, your thought process may not have factored in the distributor’s business related expenses. How much did the distributor spend for their required monthly product order? What were her/his marketing expenses (examples: product samples, brochures, DVDs, postage, newspaper ads, websites, pay-per-click ads and leads)? It’s, usually, surprisingly difficult to get a network marketing business into profit.

Q: What makes you think it will be different for you?

Here’s a quote I saved* (warning, it’s depressing for network marketers):

Roland Whitsell, a former business professor who spent 40 years researching and teaching the pitfalls of multilevel marketing: "You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone making over $1.50 an hour, the primary product is opportunity. The strongest, most powerful motivational force today is false hope."

*Note: My apologies to the original author, I neglected to record the attribution when I saved his/her quote.

Shoot and edit your video with or without a computer.

Great fun! Give Steven Spielberg a run for his money.

SONY Prosumer Video Studio

• DHR-1000 SONY Digital Video Cassette Recorder (DV/MiniDV editor)
• GV-D300 SONY Digital Video Cassette Recorder (MiniDV)
• PVM-14M2U SONY Trinitron Monitor
• DCR-TRV900 SONY 3CCD miniDV Handycam
• SPC-DVF2 SONY Handycam sports (submersible case)
• VCL-ES20x2 SONY Universal Correction Lens Kit
• VCL-0752Hx0.7 SONY Wide-angle Converter
• VCL-1452Hx1.4 SONY Telephoto Converter
• HVL-20DW2 SONY Video Light
• AC-V700 SONY AC Adaptor/Charger
• NP-F950 SONY InfoLITHIUM Battery
• NP-F950 SONY InfoLITHIUM Battery
• NP-F550 SONY InfoLITHIUM Battery
• NP-F550 SONY InfoLITHIUM Battery
• NP-F330 SONY InfoLITHIUM Battery
• DS-5 Circular Polarizer B+W
• 1450 Case Pelican

$895 for everything – all items, excepting batteries, are in mint condition

My youngest daughter is selling my video gear on Vancouver’s Craigslist.

Both digital video cassette recorders (mini-DV and mini-DV/DV) and the camera are equipped with FireWire (IEEE 1394) interfaces.

Background: My father had a Ph.D. in chemistry and ran the RCMP’s crime labs. My mother was a nurse, seamstress and artist. Our dinner-table conversations were substantive, interesting and full of humanity.

When I worked at the YMCA Health Club, all they cared about was MONEY and that’s all they ever talked about. The "Y" was where some of Ottawa’s money guys had lunch and regaled each other with stories of profit. It was a sad site for a young man, but mostly it was simply depressing. Where were the tales of helping other people live better lives?

I don’t think much has changed in the last forty-five years. I’m fearful that today’s moneyed elite have completely lost site of the collective good. The two percent of the population that controls ninety-eight percent of all the money appear to be oblivious to what’s happening around them. They even see massive foreclosure stats as a golden financial opportunity. I’ve always worried that Capitalism’s Achille’s Heel was and still is GREED.

Do you suppose Hampton billionaires learned anything from world history, specifically the French Revolution? Are they at all concerned by the Occupy Wall Street protests? I don’t know what to think about the protests, but I suspect sociologists might see them as a warning sign.

Related post: Conservative Greed

Hydraulic fracturing, often called fracking, fracing or hydrofracking, is the process of initiating and subsequently propagating a fracture in a rock layer, by means of a pressurized fluid, in order to release petroleum, natural gas, coal seam gas, or other substances for extraction.

There’s a very stark contrast between Exxon Mobil’s commercial and the Gasland trailer:

Exxon Mobil

Gasland

>> Gasland is now on PBS

If wellness is one of your priorities, you owe it to yourself to watch Gasland.

Tycoon? I’m not even close, but frankly, becoming a wealthy tycoon was never on my list.

Yesterday morning, I was speaking to someone on the phone, who imagined I was a tycoon sitting in a grand, plush office. He asked, "What are you looking at right now?" In my home office, the views are:

• out of the window beyond my computer
• desktop ‘treasures’ at the back of my desk (not shown)
• more fun stuff on my left desk (desk #2) and on my right desk (desk #3)
• and framed pictures on my wall,

but, as it ended up, he was primarily interested in some details about my computer.

These days I have a very modest computer setup, but it does everything I want it to, plus it’s great fun and never gives me any grief.

Why the ‘Tycoon’ title? The picture is a Knowles’ plate featuring Norman Rockwell’s ‘Tycoon’. I found the plate when I was tidying my office.

Q: What on earth is an induction wok?
A: It’s tasty stir-fry made easy

Background: My stove uses traditional heating elements. I’ve always been fascinated by induction cooktops.

My daughters and son gave me a portable induction ‘burner’ a couple of days ago. Yesterday we picked up a $20 cast-iron wok at IKEA.

Now we have an inexpensive, but excellent way to stir-fry vegetables, fish and meat.

"We, Not Just Me"

I was channel surfing when the words "collective good" grabbed my attention. Ends up, the author of a recent book was being interviewed.

Thomas Friedman, co-author of ‘That Used To Be Us’ is an American journalist who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times.

The reason Thomas Friedman’s words, "collective good" resonated with me, is that consideration of what’s good for the country is what’s currently missing in the USA. I’m convinced that greedy conservatives are largely responsible for the current political stalemate.

Wouldn’t you agree that a significant percentage of America’s economy is based on consumer spending?

Q: Why aren’t consumers spending?
A: The top 1—2% of income earners have all the money and many potential consumers don’t even have a job.

Unfortunately, many misguided, billionaire-controlled, GOP/Republicans are selfishly avoiding their responsibility for job creation. Did you know that:

• most American corporations are enjoying record profits
• most corporations are not hiring

Why do Republicans still want to "give these so-called job creators a tax break"?

Clearly, reducing spending is only part of the equation, corporations and the rich need to pay their share. It’s past time to consider the collective good and get America back to work.

I don’t think it’s overly dramatic to suggest that the American Dream in play. What does Thomas Friedman think? You might enjoy the following video that features an interview with Thomas Friedman:

>> Order ‘That Used To Be Us’

Related:

• >> Selfish Conservatives
• >> Conservative Greed